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Introduction
Public policy is a crucial aspect of social and political structure and it paramount in making decisions and choice by those in power because public policies has a significant impact towards the public’s daily life. On the other hand, policies encompass loopholes created by conditions that are either overlooked by the policy-makers or caused by the changing trends in social and political environment. This is when the importance of analysis and evaluation of public policies becomes important in ensuring that the implemented policies will effectively serve its intended purpose. Normally, elected political leaders have varying perspective towards certain public issues, which is likely to influence policies they created. The differences in priorities and perspectives on public issues also affect sets of societal norms and public attitude regarding matters that affects the quality of people’s life. One of the crucial matters concerning the impact of public policy is the issue of immigration, which involves
Policy Overview
Like any other public policies, immigration policies can be described into two broad categories namely policies and programs and public interventions. In context, immigration policies encompass the role of intervention prior to the arrival of immigrants. Furthermore, the intervention role of immigration policies is primarily aimed to influence immigrants of their composition, choice of settlement, and matters of welfare in the host country. In this sense, the intervention approach of immigration policy can be also described policy for immigrant selection and settlement. In terms of immigrant selection, policies enable the host country to determine the level of access that immigrants have on the labor market including definition of barriers to entry. For instance, immigration policies in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada uses economically influenced point system that allows each country to achieve balance between the local and qualified labor immigrants according to the demands of the labor market (Hall et al., 2012). On the other hand, countries with large volume of immigrants with no complex immigrant selection system can also realize the advantage of having skilled immigrants.
In some regions such as the Europe, immigration policies have adopted the European Union guidelines in terms of setting a standard number of entrants, limitations on labor entry, welfare privileges, and other provisions that mandates how EU countries should manage immigration. For example, countries such as Austria, Demark, and United Kingdom have integrated a point system within their legislative structures (Givens and Luedtke, 2004). One of the approaches employed by EU nations is the implementation of Blu Cards, which was designed to attract immigrants from non-member countries and those outside of the region. In terms of settlement policies, restrictions are often placed to limit where newly arrived immigrants are allowed to stay. This two-pronged intervention ensures that immigrants are kept away from immigrant enclave, which will enable them to quickly integrate into the new society. Secondly, the rationale for this intervention is evenly distributed immigrants across the country and to ensure that the associated cost hosting immigrants were spread evenly across local districts.
Analysis of Primary Intervention
Primarily, immigration policies were structured to reduce the economic burden of excessive participation in social welfare, which is a common phenomenon that also places a risk of immigrants competing with the locals. In the United States, illegal immigrants were perceived as a threat to the local labor market because some employers prefer the new immigrants because of the lower payable salaries. However, such dilemma affects the local citizens because the labor opportunities are becoming less available for the locals. In terms of other public sectors such as health and education, the sudden influx of immigrants creates an unprecedented increase in public healthcare and education expenditure, which threatens the decline in the quality of health services and education that local citizens are getting. In this sense, immigration policies were created primarily as an intervention tool to reduce the disparities in social and public services.
Another important function of immigration policies is to reduce the external treats to national security in which potential plots for destabilization of peace and order may constitute events that would lead to national crisis. One example of the potential threat intervention mechanism integrated into immigration policies is preventing dubious personalities that could initiate terrorism in the host country. Furthermore, immigration policies seeks to preserve national security by injecting programs in legislation that will constitute an efficient and effective screening process to weed out the desirable aliens from undesirable ones. It can be recalled some countries in Europe and also the United States have reported incidents of terrorism initiated by individuals formally recognized by the host countries as immigrants. On the other hand, national security can be considered only as the gatekeeping aspect of the immigration policies. This is because immigration policies also include programs designed to create a more suitable living experience in the host country.
One example is the program initiated through immigration agencies wherein the immigrants are being asked to undergo introduction programs in order to be more familiar with the local culture, society, customs, and fundamental laws of the host country (Espenhade et al., 1997). For instance, the United States immigration policy requires immigration applicants to attend scheduled seminars prior to the release of the approved travel visa. For immigrants that are not fluent in the English language, language programs are also being offered to prepare the immigrants for their arrival in the host country. Most importantly, eliminating the language barrier between the immigrants and the locals will enable the former to easily integrate into the social environment of the host country (Espenhade et al., 1997). In some countries, introductory programs already include language programs. On the other hand, introduction programs vary in respect to timing because most of the time, such programs are only to the newly arrived. In this sense, introduction programs intervene in situations where the immigrants are perceived as most vulnerable.
Despite the positive outlook on the principles of immigration policy programs, there still exist a number of issues associated emanating from the said program interventions. For example, participation in the introduction and language programs encompasses some form of remuneration, which represents the motivational aspect of attending the programs. The underlying issue with remuneration is that the strategy creates a locking-in effect in which the non-monetary incentives that can be gained from attending the program is undermined by the presence of some sort of compensation to participate. Typically, introductory programs are time –limited with predefined duration and the locking-in effect might result to the participants to constantly seek for similar opportunities because of the remuneration and undermine the need to find a sustainable long-term career. This is because immigrants are expected to be ready for economic and social integration in the host country, and relying on short-term and unsustainable opportunities for monetary incentive will not be enough to support their daily living. Furthermore, newly-arrived immigrants multiple sequential participation that will allow them to immerse in a more productive and long-term opportunities to establish a sustainable livelihood.
Institutional and Organizational Context
Part of the success of the immigration policy depends on the existence and effectiveness of the socio-economic structure of the host county and aggregated by institutions and organization in various sectors. On the government side, it is normally the Depart of Foreign Affairs that implements the prevailing statutes regarding immigration. In carrying out the institution’s responsibilities, constant monitoring and analysis are being done to provide the government with sufficient information that can be used as basis for future legislations and amendments of the exiting ones (Reitz, 2004). From the legislation side, the government’s Congress or ministry assumes the decision-making responsibility of crafting the applicable laws that will introduce policies pertaining to the regulation on inbound migration. In addition, the legislative sector of the government plays a crucial role in assuring that the intended social, economic, and political balance are maintained given the influx of migrants.
The labor market is a crucial institutional structure that is paramount in linking workers to careers that will provide the highest level of skill-transferability across industries. Primarily, the labor market ascertains the adequacy of institutionalized means for employers to determine the value of the current labor force, the positions, and skills suitable to for new hires (Dustmann et al., 2005). Normally, when workers move from one location to another the skill-transferability changes and at some point may encompass weaker labor force in one region while oversupply of labor occur in another. In such situation that institutional arrangements necessitates cross-institutional/organizational cooperation to share information regarding skill-base indicated in credentials provided by educational institutions (Reitz, 2004). In the case of newly arrived immigrants, the information collected by the immigration agency will enable institutions in the labor market to determine if they fit the labor demand.
Purpose of the Evaluation
The primary objective of the evaluation is to determine the effectiveness of immigration policies in terms of implementing programs and achieving an adequate level of intended intervention. One of the key challenges of in the evaluation process is finding accurate estimates that will justify the stipulated facts. This means that it is important to determine the appropriate questions such as what would happen if there were an absence of intervention. There are several literatures that explain the purpose of evaluating public policies. However, only few literatures can provide a comprehensive description and broader picture about the purpose of evaluating public policies. For instance, Imbens and Wooldridge (2009) asserts that the purpose of evaluation is to answer empirical questions in social science, economics, and political science, and such answer depends on the causal effects of policies and programs. In this sense, the purpose of evaluation in the context of public policies is to answer questions about cause and effect of the policies.
In the case of immigration programs and policies, an individual entering a host country is required to undergo the intervention program. However, in principle each unit (individual) may be exposed to one or several programs, but the level of outcome may be consistent among all participants. Any immigrant may participate in a form of intervention mandated by public policies, but the outcome may be different on every person despite the fact that the policies subjects immigrants to a particular regulation. The problem with policy-motivated programs is that the impact of a binary treatment or intervention is not guaranteed to deliver a uniform outcome. Hence, anticipating a certain level of outcome uniformity requires examination of the effectiveness of the implemented policies. This is when the importance of evaluation comes in handy because the involved process of analysis can detect inadequacies in the policies.
Evaluation Recipients
Although the availability of relevant literatures on the evaluation of public policies is relatively limited, the evaluation process will provide a more coherent perspective on the effectiveness of an existing public policy. For instance, findings about the implications of immigrant selection process may produce varying results on how the selection process actually impact the host country’s socio-economic and political environment. On the other hand, distinct patterns emerge regarding public policy effectiveness as a tool that produces the desired outcome of integration. For example, through evaluation that public policy experts would be able determine the conditions allowing the improvement or decline of the labor market in the presence of immigrants. In this sense, the outcome of public policy evaluation is important for evaluation recipients such as policy experts, advisors, and legislators. It was mentioned earlier that every public policy is have originated from information gathering from immigration institutions and was utilized by lawmakers as basis for policy and decision-making.
Legislators can utilize the outcome of the evaluation in deciding whether to initiate amendments on the existing laws, or to draft new policies. In this sense, the primary recipients of the evaluation are lawmakers and policy experts. In addition, it was mentioned earlier that there is a limited number of relevant literatures in public policy evaluation available for further research. Hence, policy research can be also considered as recipients of the evaluation as the findings will enable them to have a broader resource in structuring a theoretical framework for public policy research. Lastly, immigration institutions and agencies are the primary sectors that are directly concerned with immigration; hence, the evaluation will enable a broader picture of the implications of the prevailing immigration policies. In return, the concerned institutions would be able to utilize the findings as point for reference in terms restructuring programs and improving implementation strategies.
Resources for Evaluation
The notion of evaluating policies emerged as an adoption of managerial approach to public sector management, human resources management, and auditing. In this sense, the methodologies involved in public policy evaluation encompass multiple outcome measures. In addition, several modes of analysis provide access to a wide variety of information from which the data are compiled and compared to each other to determine distinct patterns. Part of the pool of resources enabling the evaluation of public policies includes public opinions through surveys and systematic feedback gathering activities from which the data can be statistically analyzed for public policy effectiveness by measuring cause and effect. In addition, existing literatures can be also examined to aid a theoretical underpinning of the emerging trends and phenomenon attributed to the changes in the social, political, and economic dynamics in consideration to immigration outcome as a primary indicator. Lastly, comparative analysis of the local and international legislations can be also significant resource for evaluation as it provides a differential perspective on the varying approaches addressing immigration issues, measuring outcomes, and effectiveness.
Conclusion
Immigration as an example of public policy is worth evaluating because of its impact on a country’s social, political, and economic development. Immigration as a public policy is involves intervention trough immigrant selection and program policies to prepare the immigrants for integration into the host country’s society, economy, and politics. On the other hand, evaluation of public policies is integral to the overall assessment of its effectiveness and impact towards policymaking.
References
Dustmann, C., Hatton, T. and Preston, I. (2005). The labour market effects of immigration. The Economic Journal, [online] 115, pp.F297-F299. Available at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctpb21/Cpapers/ecoj_1036.pdf [Accessed 1 Jan. 2017].
Espenshade, T., Fix, M., Zimmerman, W. and Corbett, T. (1997). Immigration and social policy: New interest in an old issue. University of Wisconsin–Madison Institute for Research on Poverty, [online] 18(2), pp.1-65. Available at: http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc182.pdf [Accessed 1 Jan. 2017].
Givens, T. and Luedtke, A. (2004). The Politics of European Union Immigration Policy: Institutions, Salience, and Harmonization. The Policy Studies Journal, [online] 32(1), pp.145-165. Available at: http://www.cesruc.org/uploads/soft/130311/1-130311160323.pdf [Accessed 1 Jan. 2017].
Hall, J., VanMetre, B. and Vedder, R. (2012). U.S. Immigration Policy in the 21st Century: A Market-Based Approach. Cato Journal, [online] 32(1), pp.201-220. Available at: https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2012/1/cj32n1-13.pdf.
Imbens, G. and Wooldridge, J. (2009). Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation. Journal of Economic Literature, 47(1), pp.5-86.
Reitz, J. (2004). The Institutional Context of Immigration Policy and Immigrant Skill Utilization in Canada. In: North American Integration: Migration, Trade and Security. [online] Toronto: University of Toronto, pp.1-30. Available at: http://file:///Users/norbertyap/Desktop/The_Institutional_Context_of_Immigration_Policy_a.pdf [Accessed 1 Jan. 2017].
